Silverstone apologizes to fans

Silverstone circuit has had to apologize to fans who unsuccessfully tried to buy tickets for the 2023 British Grand Prix on the day sales began.

Due to a malfunction in the online booking system, people lost time waiting in line, but first a message appeared on the displays of phones and computers that the server was overloaded, then there was a reset.

The problems started yesterday and Thursday afternoon, though a statement was published on the racetrack’s social media pages in which Silverstone’s management announced the cessation of sales, complained about the unprecedented amount of traffic and promised to take urgent action to find a solution. .

But it was unlikely that this would calm Formula 1 fans. Here’s just one of their typical comments: “This is ridiculous! I ended up in the front line twice, tried to pay for tickets six times, used three different cards, but each time the payment didn’t go through…”

Another angry fan, who still didn’t change his sense of humor, wrote: “Looks like trying to get tickets is more exciting than the actual race.”

Many attribute the failures directly to the very principle of organizing online sales, which is followed at Silverstone. Here’s how the British Grand Prix promoters explain it themselves: “By 2023, most major races will use a pricing model where fans who have booked tickets in advance will receive them at the lowest possible prices.”

It was the general desire to buy tickets more cheaply that caused the load on the servers of the company responsible for ticket sales to exceed their technical capabilities.

The management of the autodrome released a statement Friday morning: “We apologize for the false start and for the experiences our fans experienced yesterday.

Secutix, our ticketing partner, has been working through the night and we have been assured that yesterday’s technical issues have been resolved.

Today we plan to resume sales. As expected demand will remain at an all-time high, try not to queue too early as the queue resets at 11:30am when sales reopen.

We want to assure fans that there are still enough tickets available from all categories.”

However, judging by the reaction of the upset fans, the online sales system has not been fully restored. In addition, in many cases money was debited from the accounts, but people did not receive confirmation of booking tickets. And also the anger of the public was caused by the fact that the price of tickets has already risen today.